Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner.
This is exactly the issue. As George, and several others, have already stated several times over in this thread previously, the chinese have a history of putting the onus of copyright and patent infringement enforcement on the patent owner. This costs money. Lots of it. Huge money. The chinese know it. They do it all day long, every day. The difference is, in most cases, they're not very good at copying. They use inferior cast iron, and the fit and finish on planes from WR and the mountain of Bridgeport clones leaves much to be desired.
This is one of those debates that will probably continue on forums forever. Some people don't care about the issues, and all they care about is the dollar coming out of their pocket. Some care heavily about the issues, and choose to buy fewer items, and buy quality from a North American or European maker, at all costs. Some just stick with restoring the old stuff.
I have been lucky enough to have been "in the room" as an innocent bystander during a heated discussion on this topic, with some of the previously mentioned players who have a stake in this game. After listening to it play out, I made my decision, right then and there, to never buy anything ever again from Woodcraft. I also made the same decision regarding any tools from china, in general. I have done a pretty solid job of purging my entire workshop of tools made in china, for both wood and metal working. I sleep pretty good at night knowing I've made the right choice for me.
Here's how I see it, in it's simplest and least wordy form. Stanley/Bailey designed the bedrock plane long ago, and stopped making them decades ago. Lie Nielsen took that design, which was, at that time, no longer protected by any patent, and also did no harm to anyone, as no company was making bedrock style planes in the world at that time. They took an existent design, improved upon it in several areas, and improved the machining quality immensely. This resulted in a plane that, for the first time in (perhaps) forever, worked correctly right out of the box. Eureka. Sales in droves, and LN is partially responsible for the beginning of the current resurgence in the hand tool golden renaissance that's been going on for quite a while.
Along comes Woodcraft and Woodriver, and they ship a LN plane over to china, and copy it. Plane and simple. Forget about patents and legal rights. How about thinking about what is just right vs. wrong. They copy it, only they make a mess of things, using poor quality cast iron and questionable machining practices. They get the plane to the North American market for 1/3 the price of a LN. 3 versions later, people who don't care about the "right vs. wrong" discussion buy them because, now, they apparently work as they should, at least some of the time, and they are still much cheaper than an American Made LN plane, or a Canadian made Veritas plane.
For myself, living by a code is what keeps me going. I will never buy a chinese made tool as long as I live, and I haven't stepped foot in a Woodcraft store since being the "fly on the wall" at a tool event several years ago.
I am not a patent attorney, and I didn't play one in a movie, either. However, I am opinionated on this subject matter, in case you couldn't tell.